February 18th, 2017

On our local cable, we get the package that comes with HBO and there are 4 channels of that.  Have been toying with getting rid of the cable altogether as there is rarely anything on that I would want to watch and we can get Netflix and the kids are good at downloading anything else, but we have it.  Was looking at the schedule the other night and the great Best In Show was coming on the HBO Family channel around bedtime, so thought it would be good to doze off to.  It's one of those flicks I can nearly quote the whole thing (Grande espresso anyone?) and am watching it and it seems to be moving along faster than I remembered when I realize that they have completely edited out the Stefan Vanderhoff and Scott Dolan characters.  Guess that openly gay dudes and their Shih Tzu Miss Agnes are too much for the family audience.  Cookie Fleck's promiscuity...no problemo. 

Almost every morning when driving the kids to school (a 3 minute transit) is see this dude carrying his infant in a Baby Bjorn.  No matter the weather, he  wears a tight tank and short shorts.   And every time I seem him I shout to myself 'Big Baby/Little Baby'.  Understand this is only funny to me.

Finishing off Sri Lanka...we had done the cultural triangle and so moved into phase two.  First up was a tour through tea country.  LK is blessed with soil that was conducive to tea and when the Brits came in to colonize the country (1815 - 1948), they found it wildly profitable  to grow tea to satisfy their bottomless taste for that beverage back in the homeland.  We discovered that it was the Scotts rather than the English that were the driving force behind creating that industry throughout the world (James Lipton was from Glasgow for example).  The hill country was far cooler than the lowlands, which was a welcome respite for us.  At several points, it would be overcast and drizzly and we felt right at home in its Seattle feel.

I'm not a tea drinker and being immersed in this culture didn't sway me.  Had dialed up an In Our Time podcast on the subject to listen to as we descended into the territory.  Coffee was introduced into England prior to tea, but the locals got hoodwinked by the tea industry as being a health remedy.  And while I knew it subconsciously, the Americans affinity for coffee stemmed from the Boston Tea Party and its F-U to King George.  We popped into a couple of tea plantations and learned how it is made and was underwhelmed by how simple the process was.  Pick, dry and bag it up.  If you want black tea, it gets fermented for three hours and if you prefer the precious white tea, it is just the little single bud on top.  Other than that, not much to tell you.  I wondered if flavored tea had any tea leaves in it and no one seemed to know...almost started an argument asking if there are no tea leaves in it, can you call it tea?  What if I soaked my underpants in hot water, is that tea?  No one seemed amused.

My other tea question was around the caffeination process.  Apparently, fermenting the tea leaves for 3 hours is what turns it from green to black and initiates the caffeination process.  As a coffee lover/addict, the caffeine is what my habit requires and asked if fermenting it longer would increase the caffeine content.  Apparently not as it would just make it bitter.  On our tour were some very British sounding Indian tourists and I made a comment that it is the caffeine I am looking for and need my fix any way I can, while making  a motion of being willing to inject it directly into my veins.  The very proper Indian guy in our group could only say "Oh my". 

 We popped into the very English town of Nuwara Eliya for a superb lunch at an Indian restaurant before our scenic train ride to Ella for the night.  The train station was frozen in time from the time of the Brits as all of the equipment was vintage.

 Ella was totally hippied out with dreadlocked Europeans galore.  It is great hiking country we were told.  We did a relatively easy hike up to Little Adam's Peak and saw the snake charmer on the path. 

 He got pissed when someone took a photo without a donation.

Let's talk about dogs for a second.  There were strays everywhere.  They were docile for the most part but the quantity of them was astounding.  And most of them seemed to have come from the same momma as the light brown ones were the vast majority.  We knew that Buddhists are huge on letting life live and that even crushing a spider is verboten.  I did catch the driver squashing a mosquito at one point and he sheepishly justified it as an us vs them thing.  That is why the dogs are allowed to roam free and breed unchecked.  The Australian owner of one of the hotels had a pet dog, which was well fed and groomed (and flea free) and we talked to her about dogs.  I asked if her dog as neutered (she called it de-sexed) and it was and wondered if the local government had a policy on rounding up the strays and fixing them to control the population.  Not only was that unconscionable, but her Sri Lankan husband had basically disowned their own dog when she brought it home after his de-sexing operation. 

After tea country, we budgeted a couple of days for beach time.  We wanted to vegetate and worked with our tour operator to find a beach that was clean and quiet.  We found it on the eastern end of Weigama Bay on the southern tip of the island.  Just lovely...the water was perfectly warm and calm and our place was at the end of the beach that was away from the surfing schools.  When we were in the water, were the only ones out there.  The sand was fine and the waves just big enough to play in without being slammed.  I walked the beach a couple of times and in 10 minutes, we could have been in the heart of the surfer scene, but other than the strolls, we didn't leave the property and just sat in the sun and chilled.  There are a few beaches that are built up with tourists, but for the most part, all of the beaches around are like the one we visited.  Some rudimentary hotels but not crowded and absolutely perfect.  We didn't do it, but you could snorkel/dive, go whale/dolphin watching and there are reefs and turtle sanctuaries.  I know this would be a haul for people in the Sates to visit, but if you are in the area, LK has got everything a Thailand does, just without the annoying crowds. 

Speaking of annoying crowds, I mentioned last time that people all volunteered that the Sinhalese men were lazy.  The other comment that they all felt compelled to mention was about tourism.  Yes, Sri Lanka is rebounding and that they have everything a traveler could want from a vacation they'd say.  And for the country to make more strides in their recovery, having more visitors is key.  And then if a more hushed voice they would say, "but we don't want the Chinese".  They said this matter of factly and right to Betty's face.  Either they didn't think she was Chinese, which she gets a lot, or they didn't give a shit and they just effin hate them. 

After chilling out for a couple days, we needed to drive back up to the north a bit for our last 2 nights.  We eschewed the wildlife parks and some of the cultural spots to spend a couple days at an old tea plantation.  On the way, we were able to pop into the Galle Fort.  On the southern tip, this was the location where first the Portuguese, then Dutch and finally British made for their base of operations on the island.  Very colonial, its walls were so high that it withstood the 2004 tsunami.

Of course we remember the awful destruction of that day, but mainly on the destruction it wrought in Indonesia and Thailand and I had forgotten that Sri Lanka was hit just as hard with over 30,000 killed and millions displaced.  Any signs of the tsunami were gone by this point but hearing the stories was chilling.

Galle Fort was a self contained site with shops and old churches.  The shops were a bit pricey for our tastes but we did get ice creams.

 We saw dozens of wedding parties being photographed on our trip as it was an auspicious time on the calendar for it apparently.  The people looked very Indian to me, but have never been there so I couldn't say for sure.  The color of the skin on many was really dark, not black but almost grey. Didn't notice to much of the Indian head bobble although did see it on occasion.  I didn't think the women were to cute in general as they all seemed a bit dumpy.  One thing about all of the people we saw was that they would look at you and have a very serious face, but as soon as we would smile at them, they would all give you a huge smile back.  We liked them a lot.

Giant lizards were all over.

We also stopped on the roadside to snap a few photos of the famous pole sitting fishermen.  For a few rupees, they'd let you take a turn.

Onto the tea plantation...we had read about a few that had been restored to their colonial splendor where you would be treated in royal Victorian fashion.  The one that initially got us interested in Sri Lanka as a destination that was in Conde Nast called Ceylon Tea Trails.  Owned by the same group that did the Meadowood Inn in Napa (where Betty and I ate a $700 dinner last summer) was booked, so we booked at a place called Rosyth.  I think it suited our tastes more than the Tea Trail place as I found the Meadowood thing a bit ostentatious.  Rosyth was so laid back with a staff that was there for your every need but didn't get in the way.  Our rooms were in a separate two story bungalow that looked over the valley and were immaculately appointed.  Whoever chose the artwork definitely had a milk machine obsession.

 Welcome foot massages, the girls did a spa thing, and it was just a chill session extraordinaire.  They did take us on a couple hour hike through their property...showing us all the gardens where they harvested the food for our meals and down to the rubber plantation.  A fascinating process.  500 trees that can be tapped every other day.  Two Tamil ladies do all the harvesting in the morning and then they come back to weigh it and are paid by their haul.  These were two lightly built women that were carrying 100 jugs up and down the hills...I was taken by one of the ladies vintage Tayshaun Prince hats.

 The flight home was a grueling as the one there (1am departure, home at 5:30pm), which didn't include sitting at the stupid Colombo airport for 4 hours.  They recommend that you get there 5 hours before your flight for reasons that are still unclear.  I fought to make it 4 hours cause 5 felt ridiculous and it took us about 10 minutes to go through Customs.  Total bull shit.  I did see a movie on the flight that was excellent.  I forget who recommended it to me, but Hell Or High Water was a great flick and if you like a bit of the noir, this one is for you.  Didn't know it was up for Best Picture but is certainly deserving.